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LouisvilleDivorceNews

July 31, 2007

Welcome Linda Dixon Bullock, our newest associate at Diana L. Skaggs + Associates. She graduated from the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law in 2003. She comes to us from the Department of Public Advocacy, Juvenile Division, where she practiced out of its Frankfort office. Linda will initially assist our other attorneys with their cases and has taken over digesting all new Kentucky family law cases for this blog.

Michelle Eisenmenger Mapes, Vice Chair of the Family Law Section of the Louisville Bar Association, was accepted to the LBA Leadership Academy. Congrats, Michelle!

Sarah Jost Nielsen is on maternity leave and will return in late August, after which she will begin handling her own case load. The past many months she has served as the secondary attorney on the other lawyers’ cases, immersed herself in the study of family law, and provided invaluable assistance by digesting cases for this blog, preparing the 2007 Family Law Update Seminar materials, and updating the book Kentucky Divorce published by Thomson West.

Speaking of Kentucky Divorce, the 2008 updates have now been published. Diana L. Skaggs and Hon. Richard A. Revell are now in the process of totally rewriting many of the chapters for publication next year.

Sandra Ragland has been re-elected to the executive committee of Kentucky Family Law Network, the Louisville area collaborative family law organization.

Christina Howard joined us this year as I.T. and Legal Assistant.

Finally, our bookkeeper, Emilee White, has been promoted to Office Manager. Emilee is a 2003 graduate of the University of Kentucky with an economics major and a business minor.

We'll get photos up of all our new employees on the website, www.LouisvilleDivorce.com soon. Meanwhile, we're busy as bees and very excited about our new staff and the hard work of all.

May 31, 2007

For the first time, Super Lawyers has published a Kentucky directory, listing who it believes are the top five percent of the state's 14,000 attorneys based on peer recognition and professional achievement. Not surprisingly, ten of the twelve family lawyers selected are Fellows of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers: Mitchell A. Charney, Sandra M. Dawahare, Douglas S. Haynes, William L. Hoge, III, Steven J. Kriegshaber, Martha A. Rosenberg, Louis I. Waterman, Natalie S. Wilson, Catesby Woodford, and yours truly. In fact, of the Louisville family lawyers listed, all are AAML members. Moreover, the top 25 women lawyers in the state, from all disciplines, were listed and three of our AAML family lawyers were included, Natalie S. Wilson, Lexington, Martha A. Rosenberg, Lexington and me. They claim impeccable surveying and independent research. There are many, many great lawyers not listed, but I didn't notice any slackers among those picked.

Yet, I can't see what void this publication fills; Martindale Hubbell has offered peer reviews for decades. "Super Lawyers" does offer some ego feeding for a price: $259 plaques to hang and $495 profiles for the website that get you listed at the top. That may be a bargain compared to a paid listing on Martindale-Hubbell. Kentucky's picks are not yet up on the website www.SuperLawyers.com.

Some big firms already have updated their own websites with the news and have sent out press releases. Lawyers in Kentucky are not generally permitted to compare themselves to other lawyers. Past posts about the related ethical issues have appeared on this site here and here. Kentucky Law Review has posts here and here. The Indiana Law Blog has posted about it here and links to a number of its pasts posts on the topic here.

I guess I better submit this post to the KBA Advertising Commission with a check for 50 bucks and see what happens. If it is not approved, I'll take the post down. It's not a bone I want to pick. But, I'll let you know.

UPDATE: Here's the resonse I recieved from the KBA Advertising Commission.

The AAC has reviewed advertisement # 04602, your Superlawyers Blog submission. The Commission does not consider this an advertisement for legal services, pursuant to SCR 3.130(7.02) and has asked that I refund your $50.00 filing fee.
I have requested the Kentucky Bar Association accounting department prepare a check and for $50.00 and send it to you. It should be forthcoming.

November 22, 2006

www.LouisvilleDivorce.com News-This is an advertisement
Our “about” page was initially submitted to the Bar and resubmitted when modified. Because this post contains content similar to what may be found on a law firm website, we are submitting it to the Bar Association under the advertising rules. We will rarely use this blog to "advertise", but there has been so much happening at Diana L. Skaggs + Associates that I would really like to use this venue to share it with you. If you’re not interested, move on to the next post and be assured you will not see another like this for a long time.

MICHELLE EISENMENGER MAPES

With sweaty palms, weak knees, a flip-flopping stomach, and fear of fainting, Michelle presented her first CLE seminar October 26, 2006 at the LBA: “Personal Goodwill-Is Whether It Is Divisible Marital Property Settled in Kentucky?" Of course such a topic drew the most experienced, sophisticated practitioners to attend, making the apprehension worse. As the seminar got rolling, however, PowerPoint and all, Michelle reported that it was great fun and the audience was kind in its comments to her. Just as the ABA Family Law Trial Practice Institute ordeal about which Michelle posted here bolstered her skills and confidence, this inaugural seminar did the same. Returning to the office after the seminar, she got busy making plans to become more active in the Louisville Bar Association Family Law Section and ultimately chair that section and to join and become active in the Kentucky Academy of Trial Attorneys new Domestic Law Section. Michelle will receive the www.LouisvilleDivorce.com 2006 award for “Most Courageous.” Bravo for facing your fears and conquering them!
SANDRA G. RAGLAND

Jefferson Circuit Court, Family Division Judge Paula Sherlock was effusive in her praise of Sandy to the Family Court Forum audience last month. Judge Sherlock is running a weekly pilot project each Tuesday evening for her pro se docket, so litigants who cannot afford attorneys can come to court without missing work. Sandy has faithfully appeared every Tuesday to mediate these cases, with most litigants leaving the courtroom with a signed agreement and a court order in place.
Sandy has also tirelessly worked with the Kentucky Family Law Network, Inc., the Louisville area interdisciplinary collaborative family law group. Whether the meetings are at 7:30 a.m. or 6:00 p.m., Sandy is always present, and serves on the organizations’ executive committee. Most of her work is very much behind the scenes, so few beyond the executive committee know of her tireless work promoting this organization and the collaborative process in which she passionately believes.
For these efforts, Sandy will receive the www.LouisvilleDivorce.com “2006 Volunteer of the Year Award.”
For those of you who do not know, Sandra Ragland was trial counsel for the husband, where the wife was held to be equitably estopped from denying her husband's paternity of the child whom DNA testing revealed was not biologically related. That Court of Appeals case, Hinshaw Hinshaw , is marked “to be published” but is not yet final as a Motion for Discretionary Review in the Kentucky Supreme Court is pending. She was also wrote the appellate brief for Downing v. Downing, 45 S.W.2d 449 (Ky.App. 2001) which established the “three pony rule” for child support in large income cases.

INTRODUCING: SARAH J. NIELSEN

Sarah is our newest associate and we are delighted to have her. A 2002 cum laude graduate of St. Louis University School of Law, Sarah earned her undergraduate degree, cum laude, from University of Notre Dame. She comes to us from the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy. While in law school, she was an intern and court-appointed special advocate with CASA in St. Louis and a court advocate for the Center for Women and Families in Louisville.

INTRODUCING: EMILY A. HINDERLITER

A cum laude Vanderbilt grad, Emily is a law student at The Ohio State University Morris College of Law working on her JD with certificate in dispute resolution. She is a visiting student during the 2006-2007 school year at Louis D. Brandeis School of Law in Louisville and we are pleased to have her as an intern at Diana L. Skaggs + Associates. She was actually hired to be a file clerk and runner, but she is so talented that we want her to intern. She also is working with Tony Belak at the International Center for Dispute Resolution at Sullivan University. Previously she served as research assistant for Professor Cole, co-author of Mediation: Law, Policy and Practice (2d Ed. 1994) updating and organizing this treatise. Last year she also taught weekly lessons using dispute resolution techniques to a 5th grade class as a volunteer project.

www.LouisvilleDivorce.com has a complete makeover
The lawfirm website of Diana L. Skaggs + Associates was completely revamped this year. Check it out!

DIANA L. SKAGGS

2006 has been a busy year for yours truly as well. This blog was born. I received a very nice award (Family Law Practitioner of the Year) at the Louisville Bar Association, presented by Olu Stevens. I was honored and humbled by Alan T. Slyn asking me to substitute for him in presenting with retired judge Richard A. Revell the 15th Annual Domestic Relations Update. Having done it once, Alan then tapped me to take it over for good, so Judge Revell and I will again be presenting it on February 23, 2007. As you may know, Richard A. Revell and Alan T. Slyn wrote Kentucky Divorce, the practice system library published by Thompson.West and updated it annually for more than 20 years. Surprise! Alan has bequeathed that honor to me, as well, and I look forward to doing the 2007 revisions with Judge Revell. I lectured to the annual Kentucky Chapter of the AAML and LBA on “appreciated nonmarital assets-active or passive” and I filmed a “hot tip” for the national AAML to be part of an AAML video seminar next year. The topic? Blogs! As president-elect of the Kentucky Chapter of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, I will become president in January 2007 for a two year term. We have tons of great ideas in the works, and I am thrilled to try to make them happen.

June 10, 2006

As you will notice, this blog has a new name, as our content has expanded beyond Louisville and Kentucky. In the process of many behind-the-scene upgrades, our old feeds failed. Please resubscribe (or subscribe if you haven't already) to the RSS feed. There is a new URL, too: http://DivorceLawJournal.com, but the old URLs still work as well. Sorry for the inconvenience, but if a promise to fix the problem were made, there's no telling when you'd be receiving new postings. Although the name and feed are new, there will be no diminishment in the reporting on Kentucky divorce and family law.
Update: A big thanks to Mike Stevens for getting the word out in The Kentucky Law Blog that readers will need to resubscribe to our feed.
Second Update: The old feed may actually be working again. Bizarre.

April 20, 2006

Our new preferred URL is now pointed to this site, www.KentuckyDivorceLawBlog.com. Two sub-URLs are also pointed here, www.LouisvilleDivorceLawBlog.com and www.LouisvilleDivorceBlog.com. The thought is that down the road we may want to separate out the postings which are limited to Jefferson County from the postings relevant to the rest of the state. As we build content, though, all will be directed here.

April 16, 2006

I have invited the other KY blawgers to my home Friday April 28 for drinks and dinner. All have insipired and helped me as I created this blog, yet few of us have met. It will be great fun sharing tips and ideas. My daughter has dubbed it the "Geek Party." If you are a KY lawyer with a blog and would like to be included, please email me at Skaggs@LouisvilleDivorce.com or post a comment.